The Vampire Justice MxM (Staten Krown)

11

Rule number one: Nothing lasts forever.

Not you or your family or your house or your planet or the sun. It is an absolute rule. Therefore when someone says that their love will never die, it means that their love is not real, for everything that is real dies.

That's what they say.

That's what they say.

Right?

I snap out of my thoughts. I'm still in the courtroom. I'm still on the stand. I'm still being questioned about my intentions for Eden.

"Sir...are you saying that you are going to destroy every single person in Eden," my lawyer Gatticus asks me.

Everyone is afraid. The looks in their eyes is something that once upon a time I dreamed for. Revenge was something that I dreamed about. Right now though I didn't dream about those things. Right now I dreamed about just being with Nero and even in my anger all I can think about is speaking the truth.

"They say nothing lasts forever," I tell the court, "There was a time that I didn't think that could be further from the truth. Could you imagine being buried alive? Could you imagine not being able to close your eyes? I scrape the coffin until my fingers bleed to no avail. I sung songs until I forgot the lyrics. There were times I almost forgot my name. And nights that I had to remind myself. There were nights I'd scream. Help me. Help me! Can anybody hear me. No one heard me. No one cared. I was forgotten. For 100 years I stared into the darkness...unable to sleep and unable to die. I was an immortal in pain. Forever is a long time. Could any of you imagine the pain and hurt that I went through? So did I hate Eden. Yes. I hated Eden because I screamed. I screamed Help me. Help me. Free me from this cage. Please. Remember me. I'm here. No one came..."

The jury whispers amongst themselves. A minute passes. It's the most awkward minute in the courtroom. I assume it's because in the distance there are whimpers amongst the crowd. Some cry ...others look on in confusion and some still look at me in disgust. I attempt not to cry and I hold my head up to the ceiling but that is so reminiscent of looking up at the roof of my coffin and I start to tear up without noticing it.

I don't know if any of them ever had that imagery of what it was really like.

Gatticus raises his eye, "You say hate as in the past tense. Do you hate Eden now?"

"I hate things in Eden...sure. But I've found things in Eden that I love as well."

Gatticus looks around the room. He surveys the look on the face of the jury, "Santos, as you know one of your charges is kidnapping. Do you know anything about what happened to Justice."

I look at my father.

He's sitting across the room. It's be easy to point him out but I don't. For some reason I still want to protect him. For some reason I know that all the fucked up shit he's been doing was in some sick way attempting to protect me.

"No. I had no motivation to hurt him. Justice and I had a very...special relationship," I explain, "Justice is one of the things in Eden that I love."

The room gets quiet.

I notice Nero. He shoos Sinclair away and goes back to take seat in the aisle. He glares at me interested in what I had to say about Justice. I'm walking on eggshells right now.

"Can you describe your relationship with Justice?"

"He taught me things. He was very...passionate about teaching me to let my pain go. It seems so impossible doesn't it. How do you let 100 years of pain go? Just like that. I thought it was impossible as well. Maybe I put too much into it all."